Key points
- The Murray was at 94.36 metres (above sea level) at 9am on Wednesday
- That’s 1.49 metres higher than at 9am on October 12
- The flood peak, of 95.6 metres, is now expected on Friday and Saturday
- Up to 60mm of rainfall is forecast to hit Echuca between Friday and Sunday
Echuca faces tougher than predicted flood conditions later this week, and levees designed to protect thousands of homes and businesses from inundation are creating fresh headaches for authorities.
As the northern Victorian town prepared for conditions to worsen, the state recorded its second flood death. The body of a 65-year-old man was found on a property near Nathalia, north-east of Echuca, on Tuesday afternoon.
Locals at the Echuca port on Wednesday morning.Credit:Bianca Hall
At a packed community meeting on Wednesday, residents were told heavy rainfall was likely to hit Echuca just as the swollen Murray River peaks on Friday or Saturday.
The twin events, an Emergency Management Victoria commander told residents, raised the risk of Echuca “drowning from the inside”.
This week’s flood peak levels have been revised down slightly from 95.9 metres above sea level to 95.6 metres, and the Murray flood peak is now expected to hit on Friday or Saturday.
The peak will coincide with 40 to 60 millimetres of rainfall forecast to hit Echuca between Friday and Sunday.
Works continue to construct the levee in Echuca.Credit:Steve Huntley/Riverine Herald
The Murray has been slowly but steadily rising this week. In the 24 hours to 9am on Wednesday, it rose by eight centimetres. The usually bustling port area is now heavily sandbagged, and an earthen levee runs parallel with the footpath along the river line.
Floodwaters from the Goulburn River downstream in Shepparton and Mooroopna is flowing into the Murray, which was at 94.36 metres (Australian height datum), or above sea level, on Wednesday morning. That mark is almost 1.5 metres higher than at 9am last Wednesday.
Campaspe Shire Council and emergency services are now warning that rainfall within an extensive levee system, built and reinforced this week to protect Echuca, could trap excess water within those levees and create “pools”.
Emergency Management Victoria sector commander Luke Waterson said the changed conditions posed greater risks.
“What that poses to us is a massive risk of rain trapped inside our levee and the risk of us drowning ourselves from the inside,” he said.
“So today is a day for the emergency services team to work on a strategic plan of how we’re going to mitigate the risk of any rainwater flows or breaches into that levee bank when that rain comes here.”
As The Age reported on Wednesday, about 190 homes are within hastily constructed earthen levees in Echuca’s east, which are designed to protect thousands of homes and businesses from inundation when the floods hit.
Residents and Australian Defence Force personnel have been working around the clock since Monday with heavy machinery to build the levee to 1.5 to 2 metres, and to reinforce existing levees with sandbags and earth.
A flooded road in Echuca earliert this week.Credit:Steve Huntley/Riverine Herald
In some parts of Echuca East, the levee runs down the centre of suburban streets, cutting communities in two. On one side, homes will likely be kept dry by the earthen wall holding floodwaters back. On the other side, homes will be inundated.
Incident Control Centre commander Greg Murphy told The Age on Tuesday the levees were a tactical way to redirect water flows, and pumps would be used to remove excess water from behind levee walls.
“It supports the critical functioning of infrastructure for the community, including but not limited to things like the wastewater treatment plant,” he said.
“We are conscious of the impact on those houses. We understand that people in those houses would be most upset. However, during emergencies, there are decisions that need to be made in the interests of everybody.”
Campaspe Shire Council acting chief executive Tim Tamlin said the council had constructed the levees based on advice from Emergency Management Victoria and others.
While the levees were still the best option to protect Echuca, authorities would now consider how to mitigate the risks posed by the levees to some properties.
“The situation has changed,” Tamlin said.
“We now hear that the peak of this is going to be here late Friday, Saturday, with the Murray. That is going to coincide with the weather events as well as rain, which presents extra challenges because there won’t be any drainage back into the Murray waterways.”
He said the shire had installed pumps at vantage points along the levees and had ordered about half a dozen more pumps to bolster efforts to take water out of those areas.
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